What Lies Inside
by saucemonkey
Summary: Vilverin. An Ayleid ruin full of mystery, as well as treasure. But what waits deeper inside? What may have happened if the PC never showed up. Told from the eyes of the bandit leader, giving him a backround and naming other unnamed bandits as well.


Oh how I miss those old days… sitting in the Newlands Lodge in Cheydinhal, enjoying a drink with my friends, just enjoying a good time of beer and roughhousing. Of course the damn Orem gang was a big nuisance, but damn did that Dervera Romalen turn a few heads… not that I was all that into dark elves anyway, but she was a fine one, worthy of being a wife to someone like… well me! Of course nothing ever happened between us, I was too afraid of being rejected, damn me for my inability to talk to woman I actually have feelings for. But oh those days were numbered, and by the time that damned corrupt captain of the watch came about, he pulled up my entire fucking criminal record and booted me out of town. That damn Ulrich Leland… I swear I'm gonna skewer him with my blade and roast him for fuckin' dinner one day.

Ahh, but that's not what my stories all about you see, and as I sit here in the dark, cold confines of the imperial prison, I'd like to tell you a story about what happened to me… what happened everyone at Vilverin, and maybe even get after I get out of this god-awful place I'll go back there and confront that son of a bitch who killed everyone, and lay to rest the spirit of my fellow bandits… it's the least I could do for leading them to that damned hell hole anyway.

Unlike many of those sappy stories you'll hear in your life, mine has no grand beginning, where I was once a happy little child who had everything which was taken from me by some form of evil bitch step mother or by the king of an awful country. No, I was the child of two thieves, two thieves that couldn't help but bring into the world a no good cretin like me. I was raised on the street, given all of the luxuries of the food I found on the floor, eating whatever I could to survive. If I saw a dead rat on the ground, then there was my dinner, rat fuckin' stew, hell, I could probably tell you a few times where I was so hungry I even resorted to eating my own shit. But I'm sure no one wants to hear that gross bit of my life, I know I don't want to relive it…

In any case, I was expected to die on the streets as a beggar and a thief, but that's not what happened unfortunately, and I would have rather died a thousand deaths than experience what I did at Vilverin, it was truly a horrible place… All throughout my childhood, the thing I most remember was the constant abuse of my mother, who was stuck with me after my dad left. Never actually knew my father, something tells me I wouldn't want to anyway, if he was even half as fucked up as mom was. On a daily basis I was beaten by her, as she took out all of her anger on me and called me a worthless little snot, which I honestly believed myself back then. That bitch was sick… and after I turned 7 she just abandoned me on the street one day while she ran off with another man, presumably to make another child to beat. Honestly I didn't care, I hated my mother, and now I would have to pick up where she left off, pick pocketing to make a living.

No one would usually expect a little seven year old to pick pocket you right? Wrong. Everyone knew about my infamous mother's escapades, either stealing what she could to survive, or whoring her way into money, but the point was that no one trusted me in the town, not a soul. Got caught a few times even, had to spend a while in the dungeon. Can you imagine a child of 10 or 11 spending time in that smelly rotten old thing? Somehow I managed throughout those 5 years of stealing, and by the time I turned 12, I managed to nab a job working for the chapel, delivering messages around the city. It wasn't the highest paying job in the world, but I was finally able to PAY for food instead of stealing it. They really did turn over a new leaf for me, and even gave me a room for my services by the 3rd year that I had worked for them. It was a real turning point in my life, but I never truly did shy away from my thievery, something that I did when I saw something I wanted immensely. Soon I was found out by the church, and they threw me out on the streets again when I was 18, telling me that I was welcome back when I learned how to control my stealing habit. Ha, like that was ever gonna happen.

By that time the city had really turned itself into a hub of crime, as the Orum gang had now surfaced and was causing all sorts of hell around town. It was pretty damn exclusive too, as they only accepted Orcs in, and seeing as how I was a Redguard, I was never even in the running. So I was back out and fending for myself, trying to steal what I could to survive, making my home in the back alleys and trying not to get the shit kicked out of me by the guards. I planned to rob someone of high authority one day, which in hindsight was probably a bad idea. I had it in my head that if I pulled something off like that, I'd be in the money and would never have to steal again. Oh how wrong I was, and as soon as I was caught trying to steal from the Count's wife, I was thrown into the dungeon once again. I feel bad for the poor woman, heard she was thrown down a flight of stairs or something along those lines… But in any case, I spent about 4 years in that damned place, being beaten by the guards whenever I would talk out of turn, or if I did anything else they found objectionable. It was kind of like the old days really, with mom. After I served my time I quit the thievery, and got another job working at the General Store, transporting goods from the basement and all of that jazz. The shopkeeper didn't trust me though, and had someone keeping an eye on me at all times. Smart Orc. Worked at that shop for about 2 years, had a great time while doing it, made some new friends in the city and always had a great time at that Lodge, probably the best… No, it was the best two years of my entire life.

Then the time had come for a new captain of the watch, something I honestly didn't give a shit about, which came back to bite me in the ass when Ulrich was voted in office. I remember the day he kicked me out all too well. I was talking to my friends in the Newlands lodge, enjoying some ale when the new captain of the guard busted through the door. I had asked my friend who the hell it was, when I heard Dervera yell to me that it was the new captain of the guard Ulrich Leland. Oh boy, if I could go back in time to that day, I would have put that fucker right back in his place. I remember his exact word that he shouted out to the patrons of the bar.

"If any of you scum knows where I can find that bastard Reith Noyard, you had better tell me now! Or I swear I will throw every last one of you in the dungeons!" Of course the Orum gang was happy to point me out in the crowd and I was dragged out of that bar by two guards under the order of that bastard, my friends didn't even try to help me one bit. Turns out Ulrich was pissed at me for stealing something from him when I was a kid. Honestly I don't remember it, mostly because I never kept tabs on the ones I stole from, but it seemed that Ulrich remembered all too well. "When I was a young lad, I had found ruby on one of my escapades to the nearby Ayleid ruin, and I planned on giving it to a girl that I loved when I got back." He was pacing back and forth dramatically if I remember correctly. "But when I came back, a little snot nose Redguard pick pocketed it from me!" The bastard back handed me with his plate mail glove he carried around, causing me quite a bit of pain. "From that day forward, I vowed to stop all of you damned pickpockets in the city, and I'm going to start with you! I never even had a chance to get with my beloved!" That was a day I'll never forget, and he kicked me out of Cheydinhal, telling me that if I ever came back to his beloved city, I would be slapped in irons and sent to live the rest of my pathetic life out in the dungeon.

Needless to say I never went back, fearing that I would have to spend the rest of my life down in that awful hole I spent time in for so long. So I went forth into the wilderness, doing what I could to survive, and seeing as how I didn't even have a weapon, I'm not even sure of how I did it myself. I ended up wandering to the countryside, hunting animals for food, and raiding abandoned campsites for anything of value. However, most of the stuff that I was doing wasn't very sustaining, and it all boiled down to me having to mug someone on the road. Not sure who the poor guy was, some Breton who came too close the campsite I was at, but all I know was that I needed a weapon to survive out here, which he had possessed. Snuck up behind him in the night and knocked him out cold, looted his weapon off of him and any food he had, then left the guy to his fate, whatever it may have been. Not to say I'm a horrible guy, but when the choice is me or him to survive, it's pretty obvious who I'm gonna choose.

It was while I was out fending for myself when I came across a poor soul, trying to fight off a mountain lion with his bare hands. I took pity on the poor Dunmer and saved his ass, and as it turned out he was a fellow bandit, who had robbed a few people on the road for food and valuables. Bandits have a sort of code I guess, where we never give another bandit our real name, and instead came up with a sort of codename if you will. He called himself Gray Tooth, because of his unique incisor that was gray instead of the normal white, or yellow in the case of the dirty Dark Elf. The guy honestly had no idea what tooth care was at all. Anyway, Gray Tooth then asked me for my codename, to which I had to think about for a moment. This whole codename thing was new to me, but I didn't want to sound like an idiot, so I came up with something as fast as I could.

"Dark Stealer" I stated proudly, thinking that I did pretty well in name selection. Gray Tooth laughed, stating that:

"I know you're new at this, so I'll let you think about a new name for a minute." I was kinda shocked that he knew I was new at this, even angry that he was making fun of me when I saved him in the first place, but I took up his offer and thought more on the name I would have permanently for my bandit career. It was honestly a struggle; after all, I would be calling myself by this name for the rest of my life. It took a while, but I came up with a name I thought would be suitable for my character.

"Shadow" I told him. "Because no one notices me when I'm on the prowl, just like a shadow." Grey Tooth wobbled his head around and decided that it would be good enough for now. Well anyway, both I and Grey Tooth were the scourge of the road for a while, just jobbing simple folk for a time, but then moving on to big game like merchants when we felt comfortable enough. We did this for about a year, until eventually we decided to add another member to our gang, but it turned out to be two people. Gray Tooth said he had found some people robbing an old couple on the road one day and decided to bring em' back to our encampment, stupid idea if you ask me but it worked out just fine. One was a beauty, a Redguard who called herself Bernice, dressed in a leather cuirass and fur leggings, had a bow with her too. She was supposedly named after her great ancestor. And the other was a Breton who didn't speak,Bernice called him No Tongue, rather unimaginative if you ask me. He was more of a heavy armor guy, dressed in an iron cuirass and iron leggings too, had a big two handed sword also. Well after we all got acquainted, we figured that we ought to set up camp somewhere for a while, to establish some kind of base where we could all sleep and rendez vous if needed. Our camp was only able to fit a few people, so obviously we would either have to find somewhere else to stay or someone was sleepin on the floor. Well no one wanted to do that, so we all packed up our shit and moved on, hoping to find a camp suitable for us all.

After about a day of travel, we came across another pair of bandits, one who went by Two Coin, light armor and dagger user, and the other who called himself Slayer, same as No Tongue really, besides using a war hammer. We took on both of em in our search for somewhere to stay, and damn did that Two Coin reek. Something about that Dunmer just made her smell so bad that not even Gray Tooth would go near her. Well on our way we had our share of stories to tell one another, like Bernice's tale about how she fled from home to be a bandit, and Slayer's story about how he braved the Nordic mountains and fended off the Uderfrykte Matron just so that he could tell the story about how he fended off the Uderfrykte Matron. Complete idiot. Well anyway, when Slayer was talking about how he robbed someone, I saw something in the distance, something that looked like a ruin of some sort. Ulrich Leland's voice echoed in my head. _'escapades to the nearby Ayleid ruin'_ and then something clicked. If it was an Ayleid ruin, it could easily house all of us comfortably, and there might even have been treasure inside too. So I told our little band of bandits to follow me over to the ruin, which Gray Tooth pointed out to be name Vilverin. Those damned Ayleid's sure had a fucked up naming system. So we scouted out the area, killed a few mud crabs that were by the bay and set up camp. A few of the men were afraid that we were too close to the imperial city, but I told em' we had nothing to fear at all.

It was dark out by the time we ate the crab meat, so we decided to sleep outside for the night and check the ruins out in the morning. So the sun came up and we all were ready for action, but I told Slayer and Bernice to stay outside if anyone came to visit, telling them to only kill if the person got physical, or if a guard was trying to lock em up. All we found in the damned place were animals, animals and more animals, oh and those magic stones too, those things were so beautiful… but those damn rats were infesting the place, had to get my blade dripping with the blood of all those rats. Smelled bad in there too, either the rats had done it or Two Coin fucked the whole place up, either way it reeked of something. So after we cleared the cave of all of those rats, we came to a dead end, so I decided to go back up and set camp down there, in one of the chambers we found a bed. For some strange reason everyone thought that it would be best if I led the team, and far be it from me to go against the wishes of a bunch of bandits, so I accepted the roll, and in turn I got the most luxurious room in the house.

Went back up to the surface to tell everyone about our discovery, and found two more bandits wanting to join us. I reluctantly agreed and told them to tell us their "names." One was a Khajiit who refused to give us any name at all, just stating that she was from Vvardenfell, she used light armor and had a mace. The other was a Nord calling himself "Jin Gun." No idea what the fuck that was, but he used light armor too, along with a short sword and shield. With eight people, we were growing into quite a big band of bandits, and we all found our places within the ruin. Mine would be in my quarters, Bernice and Gray Tooth took the living space on the same floor as my chamber, No Tongue guarded the entrance while Slayer and Gray Tooth guarded the outside. For some reason, Two Coin and that Khajiit set up shop on the second floor, which in all honesty made everyone feel a lot better. Well after we spent some time in there, a few of the bandits, namely Slayer and Two Coin, complained about how they thought the ruin was haunted.

"Stop being idiotic!" I yelled at them, claiming that the place was a great spot to ambush merchants passing by. And eventually Bernice found out that we could gather up those stones by shooting arrows at em. Ahh that time was so simple, well, except when we found out that the Khajiit went missing. None of us were too grief stricken about it however, it wasn't like anyone really cared. So we went on collecting those stones for potential buyers, we were all plannin on getting as much money as possible so we could live in luxury on some far off island or in Hammerfell or some other place of choice. It's just too bad none of us would ever get to do it. We sold off all of the stones alright, but it wasn't enough, and I had the brilliant idea of trying to find out if there were more to the cave, more riches to be discovered. For the rest of my damned life after I experienced the horror of Vilverin, I had wished so badly that I could have left well enough alone, for deep in that Ayleid ruin was a demon that none of us could have ever imagined, and soon, the only one who would be able to tell the tale of Vilverin would be me…

**Hey fellow fan fiction writers! This was my first attempt at an Oblivion fic, so don't skewer me if you don't like it... Anyway, review and I'll definitely be back to write more!**


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